Kiss Me Now, Love Me Tomorrow
by Del Rion
Summary: There are things Tony remembers, like their first kiss. There are also lost chances to say the last words, and things better left forgotten, but he and Pepper will always have tomorrow… (Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series. Written for Trope Bingo.)


**Story Info**

**Title:** Kiss Me Now, Love Me Tomorrow

**Author:** Del Rion

**Fandom:** Iron Man & The Avengers (MCU)

**Genre:** Drama

**Rating:** T / FRT

**Characters:** J.A.R.V.I.S., Pepper Potts, Tony Stark (Iron Man).

**Pairings:** Pepper/Tony

**Summary:** There are things Tony remembers, like their first kiss. There are also lost chances to say the last words, and things better left forgotten, but he and Pepper will always have tomorrow…  
Complete. Part of "Genius, AI & Bots" series.

**Written for:** My card on _Trope Bingo_'s round 3 (square: "first time/last time")

**Warnings:** Implied character death (although no one really died), implied canonical violence. Spoilers for 'Iron Man 3'.

**Disclaimer:** Iron Man, Avengers and Marvel Cinematic Universe, including characters and everything else, belong to Marvel, Marvel Studios, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Shane Black, Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. In short: I own nothing; this is pure fiction created to entertain likeminded fans for no profit whatsoever.

**Beta:** Mythra (mythras-fire)

* * *

**About ****_Kiss Me Now, Love Me Tomorrow_****:** A lot of firsts and lasts in this one – and also a distinctive lack of the bots (and very little J.A.R.V.I.S.), but it fits well within the series.

I'm a little in love with this title and what it symbolizes in the story.

* * *

**Story and status:** Below you see the writing process of the story. If there is no text after the title, then it is finished and checked. Possible updates shall be marked after the title.

**Kiss Me Now, Love Me Tomorrow**

* * *

. . .

* * *

**Kiss Me Now, Love Me Tomorrow**

* * *

Tony will never forget his and Pepper's first kiss. He's lucky enough to have a digital recording of the moment, too, thanks to Rhodey's suit – and they most certainly don't look like _two seals fighting over a grape_, thank you very much.

He also remembers the sweet little kiss before Pepper took off to D.C. and he helped save the world from an alien invasion. Tony cannot remember the things she whispered in his ear, though, no matter how hard he tries; he forgot them somewhere in between flying out into space and falling back down to Earth…

Blessedly, he has no recollection of what he had wanted to say to her while flying the nuke through the portal. The memory of losing the connection to her, J.A.R.V.I.S., and the rest of the world still makes his skin crawl and he doesn't want to associate her with all that any more than he has to. The last words they might have said to each other…

He vividly remembers their first kiss, when she came back to New York in the aftermath of the battle. His body was still bruised and in pain, her fingers squeezing too hard, but he held her back, almost desperately, and forwent breathing for a while because she wanted to kiss him and there was nothing more important for him to do than respond to it.

In the months when he could not sleep and all he could think of was the suits and the threat of the sky opening up again, he admittedly lost touch with a lot of things – including Pepper. He tried to cling to normalcy, for her, but Tony knew she knew he was a mess and it only made things so much worse.

Not worse than her last words to him being '_you are such a jerk_' before he failed to catch her and watched her fall…

There are a lot of things Tony has been capable of forgiving himself for, or move past and leave behind, but if he'd actually lost Pepper that day, he isn't sure how he could have fixed that one – if he would have _wanted_ to fix it. Not even J.A.R.V.I.S. – who is the only one Tony has confided to about that – has any smart response to that particular dark musing.

Pepper was, of course, upset after the whole Extremis thing – upset and afraid, rightfully blaming Tony for dragging her into all that even though she had also known Killian in the past.

That was all irrelevant, in the end, and with the suits gone – a clean slate in front of him – Tony worked to make things right again.

Pepper was anxious and on edge, setting things on fire and threatening to burn Tony as well on her worst days. She didn't mean it, though, and Tony had a well-practiced line to bring her down from the edge: "Kiss me now, love me tomorrow."

Every time she slumped, laughed nervously – and then kissed him.

More often than not she also told him she loved him, but Tony knew that as long as the Extremis was fueling her outbursts, a part of her was still blaming Tony for it.

So, during every difficult day, Tony told himself he would be closer to fixing her the day after, and when the day finally came that Tony got her sorted out… that was the day he truly believed Pepper when she said she loved him.

Since then, that exchange has become an integral part of their lives; when Tony prepared for his operation in Hong Kong, she kissed him and said she would love him tomorrow; every time Tony suits up for battle she refuses to tell him she loves him – as if that alone will bring him back.

Tony never fails to hear her whispered '_please bring him back_', spoken to J.A.R.V.I.S. when Pepper thinks he cannot hear, and he itches to tell her he'll always try and come back to her, be it today, tomorrow, or the day after. The AI graciously tells her he'll do everything in his power to bring Tony back safely – which is a given – so Tony lets it go, trusting that she knows.

**The End**


End file.
